Potions Dungeons
by Chaos Ritual
Summary: When Harry is 5 he uncovers a potions lab and library in his backyard...Literally. How will his 5 years of potions knowledge change his life at Hogwarts? P.S. This is not a Severitis' challange fic... so please don't ask if it is
1. Potions Dungeons

You know the saying that running from your problems never solves anything? Well I have found out over the years that that 'saying' is actually quite true. The difference between a month and a week in the cupboard a lot of times. Right now you're probably wondering what I mean by cupboard right? Well I guess I better start explaining myself then.

My name is Harry James Potter, and I live in number four Privet Drive, Little Whinging in Surrey. I don't know if this is true, but I think the Dursley's treatment of me comes from my looks. My hair is a little past shoulder length, and it is so soft and silky it makes me look like a girl. It is also pitch black- so black it seems to absorb the light surrounding me like I'm some kind of black hole. The abnormal things about my hair don't end there, thank-you very much. In the front of my hair, framing my face, is snowy white hair about an inch or so in. I often wear a metal headband that I made, as it keeps my hair out of my potions. It also makes my white hair stick over the edge of it, causing the strips of hair to seemingly be separate from the rest of my hair. Compare that to my freakishly pale skin and my soul- piercing all obsidian eyes, and the fact that I'm so short, then you have a winner for why I would be treated badly. Or it might be something else. Who knows. Whatever the case may be, the Dursleys hate me.

"Boy, get up now! My Dudder's breakfast isn't going to make itself you know!" That, by the way, was my Aunt Petunia, the only woman that resides in the Dursleys' house, and that doesn't change the fact that she's mean. No, that just gives her all the more excuses to be my slave driver. I knocked on the cupboard door three times, signaling that I was awake and getting dressed. Another reason they might hate me is because I can be so quiet, I even seem to walk without sound, and of coarse they hate anything that is not normal.

I quickly got dressed in Dudley's hand be-down clothes, got up, and started cooking the bacon. I should explain who Dudley is now I guess, sense I mentioned him. Dudly is the youngest of the Dursley's trio, but that doesn't tone down his meanness. After all, look at who he was raised by! He is still as mean as Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, and he doesn't even really have to try. He is a 'bully' of sorts, and never lets up on his attack. Whether it be here at the Dursley's house or at school, there is no escape from the way he treats me, except my special place.

I call it Potions Dungeons, in favor or what I do there and where it is located. I guess I'll have to tell you about Uncle Vernon later, in favor of telling you about the Potions Dungeons. Potions Dungeons, or PD for short, is actually one of the cellars that people used to use a long time ago. Luckily for me, no one has know of it's existence for a very long time, so I am perfectly safe from my relatives there. It is behind the cellar, or should I say beneath it? The door to it is is a patch of grass with a small, rusty handle on it. When you pull it up you find a set of earthen steps that go on for about ten yards or so, but enough for it to seem like infinite blackness. At the bottom is a small dirt room, with three doors leading from it. I guess that I could add that it's empty, but I see that as unimportant.

The door to the right was an extensive library, all on 'potions' so to speak. Although they do have some other books that can help with potions, such as books on plants. The room to the left is a 'laboratory' where 'potions' can be made, so to speak; and the room straight ahead is a store room where there are lots of 'ingredients' for the 'potions'; again, so to speak. I discovered PD when I was five, and two years I read in the library not wanting to accidentally blow the place sky-high if I made a mistake. Now I'm ten , and have been making 'potions' for three years, using every spare moment of my time to be with my precious 'potions' and 'potions' books.

PD and what I do down there is my greatest secret and greatest joy. As I have never had a friend in my life (Dudley keeps chasing them away with threats of pain) you can imagine how much time I have spent down there. And people wonder why I have such pale skin!

By now the Dursleys have finished eating, and me just picking at the little amount of food I'm served. I quickly pick up the table and wash the dishes, as I do not want to feel their wrath upon me at the moment. Especially since I have a potion brewing in PD that needs looking after and I need to be down there in about ten minutes to pick up where I left off so I don't melt my cauldron. I would just hate to do that, I only have three left in my care for me to use!

Finishing the chores up quickly (or as quickly as you can with my Aunt Petunia criticizing your every move) I ran outside, through the door open, ran down the stairs with speed I didn't know I possessed, finally getting to my potion.

After adding milkweed and stirring three times, I breathed a sigh of relief. I wouldn't melt this cauldron, at least not today. After about ten minutes of stirring and adding ingredients, I heard a strange hoot from above the trapdoor, and went to investigate. There, sitting in front of me like it was doing the most natural thing in the world, was a rather large barn owl with a letter strapped to it's leg by a piece of cloth.

Now to all of you reviewers, the more reviews I get the faster I update the story. Same goes for my other story as well! Review review review! Please tell the truth about what you think of this story as well, because if you don't think that it's good I'll delete it. Hopeful smile Chaos Ritual


	2. The Dream, the Man, and the Letter

I closely observed the owl, wondering why on earth an owl would be carrying messages in broad daylight, when all of the books that I had read about then clearly labeled them as nocturnal animals. If just the fact that the owl was awake during the daylight hours surprised me, then you definitely should note the I was also surprised on the fact that an owl was acting like an carrier pigeon. Who would have thought?

Carefully picking up the rather large owl I steered myself back into the PD, being careful that no one saw me. When in the library, I plopped down on one of the squishy green, silver and black chairs taking the owl into my lap in the process. Quickly relieving the owl of it's burden, I finally got to have a good look at the letter.

The envelope was parchment, the old, heavy kind. Holding the envelope together was a wax picture of a badger, raven, lion, and a snake. On the front the letter was addressed Mr. H. Potter , The P.D., 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Of coarse all of this was written vertical, but oh well. With the sparkling emerald ink shinning in the candlelight, I neatly opened the letter and was surprised with what I saw. The letter was an invitation to go to a school of magic, a school called hogwarts!

With this news I answered the letter yes, but had a lot of questions about what this strange world was about. Like where I was going to buy all of those things! I mean, look at the shopping list! I already have all of the things for potions, but everything else I am lacking. Like a wand. Throughout the night I finished the potion that I was working on and all of my chores, all the while pondering my acceptance letter. I still find it hard to believe even now that I'm a wizard and potions is part of the curriculum, and I've been doing potions for years.

At eight thirty it was almost time for me to go to bed, and uncle Vernon was yelling at me for the last twenty six minutes. That reminds me, I still have to describe him, don't I? Well uncle Vernon is what people would call the head of the household. Anything and everything that happens he knows about, except of coarse for my precious P.D. He is one of the meanest of them all, but that isn't where he stops. He also influences and encourages their treatment of me, making my life get worse by the day. By the way, just so you know he is REALLY fat. Sometimes I wonder how he can even walk!

Now that you know that, I guess that I better tell you what is going on right now. Or at least what I am planning on doing. I am guessing that the Dursley's hate me because I can do magic, and because of that they belittle me consistently. They hate me because I have magic and they consider it 'unnatural freakishness'. It truly is awful that they would hate me for something as simple as that.

"Boy get to bed now and don't let me see your grimy, filthy face ever again!" Yep, a nice ending to a trying day. I quickly threw myself in the cupboard that serves as my room, and turned out the small light bulb that swung slightly overhead. Laying down, I stared off into space thinking about this school that I had got accepted into, and dreamed of friends that like me for who I am. That truly would be nice. Eventually I gave into sleep, and drifted into dreamland.

Dream

I watched as a unicorn of purest black, a phoenix of blinding white, a humongous snake with yellow seething eyes, and a strange badger that radiated magic danced around me, in a moving pattern. All of them seemed to be trying to get me to follow them, but instead I just sat there wondering why they would want me to follow them. They all offered me different things if I chose them, but instead I still sat there. They were getting impatient, all getting more and more desperate to get me to follow them. Finally, when they were in a straight line, I chose them all. Every single one of them.

End Dream

I woke at what was probably dawn, and started on breakfast. At about 7:00 Vernon waddled his way down here, and I put his breakfast in front of him. Soon after that the rest of the crew arrived down here as well, and I gave them food as too. As usual, I didn't get any food to eat. I don't remember the last time I was allowed to eat breakfast. I don't think I ever was, in fact.

Ding Dong! Someone was at the door, and they were probably here for either Dudley, Petunia, or Vernon. After all, who would come for me? It's not as if I have a social life. "Get the door boy!" Was all the prodding I needed to go and open the door. I've learned that it's best to not press my luck. When I opened the door, I was surprised with a greasy man walking through the wooden doorframe.

"Hello Mr. Potter." said the man, his voice a deep baritone. "Are you ready to go get your supplies?" By now I was almost bubbling over in excitement, and I dashed over to the man.

"Can we leave now?" I asked, trying to keep my excitement to myself. All through that he seemed to be sneering, like he didn't want to be here. He probably didn't. Cooling myself down, I waited silently for an answer.  
"Of coarse we can. Now lets get a move on. I don't' want to spend all day watching idiotic students get supplies, especially you." All during this exchange the Dursley's were staring off into space in some sort of shock.

Just as I was about to leave the house Aunt Petunia shrieked, "How on Earth did you know about this freakishness? We never told you anything, and when did you get your letter without us seeing it?" The more she spoke, the closer she seemed to her breaking point. I could practically see her boiling over.

"I found out that I was a wizard when I received my letter by owl." When these words came out of my mouth I almost instantly regretted it. Uncle Vernon pulled out a gun and aimed it at me and the stranger, alternating who it was pointed at.

"Now boy, you are going to go to Stonewall High and you will be grateful for it. I won't pay for you to go to some freak school!" It seemed like this was a last straw for the man, and he pulled out a long pointy stick that was at his side, said some funny words, and the next thing I knew Dudley was running around with a pig's tail stuck out of his but, and the rifle had disappeared into thin air.

"Let's go Mr. Potter." The man said, and he then proceeded to drag me out of the Dursleys' house. "We are going to Diagon Ally to get your school supplies now. Unfortunately we have to use muggle transportation, so we will be going a little slow. Transportation wasn't arranged in time." Soon I was pushed into the huge car in front of me, and we proceeded to go to get my school supplies. Though right now I could say that the amount of questions running around in my head is about the size of Jupiter, and it sure is giving me a headache.

For all of those that are still reading this story, I'm sorry that it took so long for me to update. I kept on rewriting this chapter, and I just couldn't seem to get it to the way I like it. I am also sick as I'm putting this up, so please tell me if you find something that doesn't make since. Right now I am extremely dizzy and I see pretty whirling lights going around my head… Chaos Ritual


	3. First Glimpse

We ended up using many different types of transportation to get to this 'Diagon Ally' place. We used boat, car, taxi (though they are basically the same thing) and in the end we ended up just walking the rest of the way there. As we walked down a seemingly random sidewalk, (well for me it was more like trying to disguise the fact that I was practically running to keep up with his strides…)

I was truly becoming confused. I saw CD store, clothing stores, and even furniture stores. But I never found anything that could be remotely similar to a store that would sell the types of things that were on my list. Robes? Wands? Where were we going to find them, in this everlasting mess of streets and stores? I truly had absolutely no idea. However, the greasy man (who I later found out was Professor Snape) seemed to know where he was going, so I just followed. However, I was quite certain that if I got lost I would never be able to make my way back to the Dursley's on my own. I would end up being completely and utterly lost.

Suddenly, to my surprise, the man sharply turned and started to head to a dumpy little place called the 'Leaky Cauldron'. It was extremely dirty on the outside, covered in dust, muck and grim from years of having no one to clean it up. The sign teetered dangerously on the edge of the small shelf the held it up, and it seemed as if one small gust of wind would blow it off the rim and onto to street below. The two windows that were on either side of the door were murky with dirt, and it seemed impossible to see inside without actually going in. Then Professor Snape opened the door, all the while having it squeak loudly on it's hedges.

Then we went inside. To tell you the truth, the inside seemed to be exactly like the outside portrayed. Shady people sat in random corners of the pub, speaking in hushed whispers so no one could use any of their information against them. Most of them wore cloaks of a dark color, hiding their other clothes from view. In the end, it didn't surprise me that many of the cloaks that did have hoods had them up, casting long shadows over their faces and hiding them even further from view.

Overall there was only three lights lighting up the main area of the pub- they each had a dull light that was seemingly half hidden by insects, dust, or whatever got itself stuck under there. Booths lined the sides of the place from our eyesight where we entered, and they were all a dark mahogany wood, causing them to seem to slink into the shadows just as the customers were. In the center were random tables made from the same wood, but it seemed as if the were far less used then the booths. That I'm guessing is probably due to where they are placed in the pub. Those that sit there are probably trying to be the center of attention and don't care if they get stared at.

Finally, at the very back of the pub was the place where the actual business takes place you could say. There at the back was a small bar with stools, for alcoholic drinks I would guess. People would come here to this area and drink their little hearts out and meanwhile tell the manager of it all the problems in their lives and hope for in to get better in their drunken haze. Truly, I could just picture it happening. The stools and the bar were made of the same wood as everything else, and the only thing that was truly different about it was that the stools had deep red cushions so when you sit down, you just sunk into the stool. My guess is that they are made very comfortable so that people would choose to sit there and get lots of drinks instead of mourning alone with only one or two drinks in a corner.

Next to the bar was a simple cash register that took the orders of the people that wanted to just eat there and talk. Personally I think that is looked kind of rusty, and it certainly wasn't one of the modern cash registers that they're coming out with now. This thing looked old, ancient. The counter it sat on, like everything else in this place, was chipped, dented, and obviously well used.

However, the man that was behind the registered surprised me, and when I say surprised, I mean surprised. He seem completely out of place at this bar, like instead he should be working at some place where he could talk all day to his customers and they wouldn't mind. Here, however, it definitely seems like they would mind other people prying into their business. He wore an old, loose shirt and he seemed to have a permanent smile on his face. Personally, I think this is the kind of person that can get extremely annoying, very fast.

Finally, Professor Snape decided to grace us with his speaking. "Tom," he said, "Take us to the ally as I am here to escort a student well getting his school supplies." He said the last bit with an obvious sneer, you could just hear it in his voice as he spoke. He then frowned and continued, "You better hurry up, I have other things to do today instead of standing in here. I don't have all day."

Tom's ever present grim faltered a bit, but it ended up just coming right back up. "Ok!" He said happily, and proceeded to guide us into a storage area in the back, or what should be a storage area. The closet was made of the same gray stone that the entire place was made of, and it only contained a few bags of things here and there, but nothing seemingly worthwhile. At this point I was definitely confused, how could someone fit an entire ally in a storage closet?

While I was puzzling over the fitting an ally in a storage closet idea, Professor Snape still had an annoyed face, one of impatience. He quickly whipped out his stick, and walked over to a trashcan that I hadn't seen earlier. It had somehow escaped my gaze as it searched the closet. He muttered to himself "Three up and two across…." and he tapped a stone brick with the stick, and then something completely unexpected happened. Whatever I thought was going to happen, was dead wrong. What happened was the stone he tapped started wriggling, or shaking, however you want to look at it. Then the stones themselves seemed to fold into themselves, creating a rumbling sound as they folded away. However, as the stones moved, a bright light obscured my vision for a second, as it grew brighter and brighter.

Then I saw it, and Professor Snape grumbled aloud to me, "Welcome to Diagon Ally, Mr. Potter. Please refrain yourself from running around like a maniac and follow me closely." Of coarse, I barely registered what he said as my eyes wandered around. There were shops for anything even remotely magical, from wands to magical creatures. There was so much to see, I was just star dazed. My eyes tried their best to catch everything that was there, but I was positive that I had missed some if not half of the things there were to see there.

It wasn't just the shops that had me dazed, though. There was the people. All of them wore different kinds of robes, and the few that didn't wore messed up versions of the clothes that we wear everyday. Most of them carried around sticks like Professor Snape, and if I couldn't see it right away I was sure that it was hidden somewhere on their persona. Some wore the traditional witch hats, the tall, pointy kind with a large brim. Others carried around strange and exotic pets, like dogs with two tails, fluffy balls of fur that are obviously purring if they're happy, and I even saw a man with a huge boa constrictor wrapped around his shoulders. Overall, seeing this was amazing.

Then Professor Snape abruptly stopped in front of a huge, glittering white building. Personally, I think that it looked like one of the ancient structures of old, and it seemed to just reek of ancient magic. The steps up to it glittered with expensive marble, and looked as though they had never been stepped on. It was an absolute work of art. Then me and Professor Snape started up the stairs, where I would have the surprise of a lifetime.

I'm sorry that it took this long for me to update, but now that it's summer I should be able to write more. If you're confused on something, I would suggest rereading the earlier chapters as I have redone them as well. Thank-you so much to everyone that reviewed! Also, as I got a new e-mail address I didn't get some of the reviews, that's the reason I didn't respond to some of them. Anyway, thank-you for reviewing, and please press the pretty purple button at the bottom of the page that says review! Chaos Ritual


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